A novel optical mm-wave generation scheme based on three parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators

► We propose a novel scheme, which can be used for sextupling, 12-tupling, and 18-tupling mm-wave generation. ► The scheme is simple and has better performance than available results. ► The system performance is still acceptable even if some of the parameters deviate from the ideal values to a certain degree. ► The 18-tupling mm-wave generation scheme is first proposed by us, and has good performance. ► We discuss the performance of the mm-wave generation scheme in detail by taking several non-ideal factors into consideration.